Creating healthy residential communities in higher education through the use of restorative practices.

"For many being restorative is not a comfortable way of confronting behavior," says coauthor Stacey Miller. For decades housing professionals have taught RAs to "lay down the law" and simply stop negative behavior. The RA is the "boss" the person who is in charge of the community and is supposed to use that authority accordingly. Restorative practices is a huge paradigm shift in which staff confront behavior, but also share their own feelings as a part of that process. We now are telling RAs to make themselves vulnerable, express how the inappropriate behavior is impacting them and ask questions of residents to help them understand how their behavior is affecting others. Restorative practices puts the emphasis on sustaining good relationships because ultimately that is more effective in achieving behavior change. (excerpt)